


Improvements

by mnemosyne



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-03
Updated: 2013-04-03
Packaged: 2017-12-07 10:02:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/747252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mnemosyne/pseuds/mnemosyne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone's messing with Scotty's stuff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Improvements

It hadn't taken long for Montgomery Scott to get territorial about the  _Enterprise's_  Engineering section. He'd taken to his new position as Chief Engineer with as much aplomb as if he'd been asked to judge the final round of "Who Makes the Best Scotch for Scottish Engineers" competition. So when he had arrived in Engineering one nightshift two weeks into his run to find some junior engineer _fiddling with things_  underneath one of the consoles, he hadn't exactly felt all that charitably inclined towards her.  
  
"And what exactly do you think you're doing?"  
  
"Fixing it," came the vague reply. Scotty glared at the only part of the woman he can see, which, all right, happened to be a pair of very nice long green legs, not that he cared.  
  
"Fixing  _what_?" he asked, heading over and craning his neck so he could properly inspect whatever on earth this woman was doing. He met with an exasperated sigh and beautiful bright eyes looking at him with an air of frustration.  
  
"This!" she waved a hand at the tangle of lights and wires, "what is this? This is crazy." She went back to looking at the mess above her head. "Sir," she added, as an afterthought.  
  
Scott bristled slightly. This particular console had been one that he'd jury rigged himself, irritated with the standard  _useless, idiotic_  collection of pointless connections Starfleet insisted on when they built these starships. He'd spent a day and a half on it, had chased away any nosy subordinates who hung around offering "helpful" advice. Even Keenser had stayed away, but then again, Keenser had been doing tinkering of his own and Scotty had turned a blind-eye to it, preferring to wait until he'd done whatever it was he'd wanted to and then tell him exactly why he was wrong. And then keep the changes. Teamwork.  
  
Grumbling, Scotty resigned himself to crawling under the console with her; at any other time, part of his mind told him, he would have embraced this scenario. He ignored that part.  
  
"There's a reason-" he began, but the woman interrupted him.  
  
"You did this?" she asked, with surprising vehemence. Scotty's eyes darted to anywhere but her. Which was difficult in this confined space.  
  
"Aye, but there's a reason!" he protested. "Lieutenant...?"  
  
"Gaila."  
  
"Gaila. There's a reason."  
  
"You've said that three times now," said Gaila, tugging at a blue wire.  
  
"Well there is. It's more efficient my way. How come I've never met you?"  
  
"More efficient than woodfire. I've been in Starfleet Medical a while."  
  
"More eff- Lieutenant! You get three times the amount of power by connecting these-"  
  
"-over there, yes, but what about this?" Gaila pointed. Scotty coughed as he saw the joint, barely soldered together.  
  
"It's a work in progress," he lied.  
  
"Sure. It's better if you reverse the flow  _here_ , hook this thing over to.... there, you see?"  
  
"If you want to blow up Engineering the next time we go above Warp Three, go for it," said Scotty. Gaila frowned and stared at her handiwork.  
  
"Hm." She poked at something in the far back. "What about now?"  
  
Scotty leaned forwards, peering into the tangled mess of wires. It would have made his old tutors weep, he knew, but he'd be damned if the green girl hadn't got a good eye. She'd taken his prior revisions, built on them in ways he'd not thought of. Impressive.  
  
"Did anyone ever tell you, Lieutenant, that you're a beautiful woman," said Scotty, as he traced each wire back to the source. Calculations of power and efficiency and resistance and speed flickered before his eyes as he studied her work. "A  _very_  beautiful woman," he amended, when the answers resolved themselves before him.  
  
"Frequently," Gaila replied. Scotty shifted on his elbow and picked up a spanner.  
  
"Welcome to Engineering," he said with a grin, "and do you want to take a look at the transporters?"


End file.
